Should the West believe Egypt's new president?

Cal Thomas

Throughout America's history, there have been people who denied threats from our enemies. During the Revolutionary War, significant numbers sided with the British monarchy. Enablers in politics, the media and even religion helped Communism remain in power for seven decades in the Soviet Union. German Nazis had their U.S. apologists.

The presidential election in Egypt, won by the Muslim Brotherhood's Mohamed Morsi, challenges contemporary deniers and enablers who refuse to acknowledge the threat advancing Islamism poses to Israel and the West. Enough Egyptians voted for Mr. Morsi to allow Islamists to achieve greater political power than at any time since the Brotherhood's 1928 founding.

Mr. Morsi mouths the words the West wants to hear (he was educated in America). He speaks of being president of "all Egyptians," promising to honor all international agreements made by the Hosni Mubarak regime.

A cleric, Safwat Higazi, introduced Mr. Morsi at a May 1 campaign rally and stated the Brotherhood's objective: "Our capital shall be Jerusalem, Allah willing." That seems to signal the real direction in which Mr. Morsi could take his country. It is certainly in line with Muslim Brotherhood thinking.

After more than three years of pandering and apologizing to the Islamic world, the Obama administration has produced a tree bearing rotten fruit. The White House congratulated Mr. Morsi on his victory. What else could it do? It won't admit error or acknowledge that the "Arab Spring" is starting to resemble a Siberian winter.

Iran continues its nuclear weapons program and threatens to wipe the "Zionist entity" off the map. Russian President Vladimir Putin visits Israel and urges Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to attack Iran, to which Russia has been providing nuclear technology. Should Egypt again become hostile to the Jewish state (the recent terror attacks from the Sinai border area are a sign that 32 years of stability along the Egyptian-Israeli border could unravel), Israel may be in greater peril than at any time in its modern history.

Sixteen months ago, the Brotherhood declared a lack of interest in the Egyptian presidency, vowing not to run a candidate. Add that to the long list of lies and empty promises that numerous Arab and Islamic leaders have peddled to the West.

Columnist Max Boot seemingly buys into the fantasies of the apologists, enablers and deniers. In a Commentary magazine article titled "Let the Brotherhood Rule in Egypt," Mr. Boot writes, "As long as a Brotherhood government must face voters in the future, popular sentiment will act as a check on its illiberal tendencies."

Many dictators have been elected once.

"Regardless," Mr. Boot added, "it is a tragedy that the will of the Egyptian people, who plainly long for Western-style democracy and not an Iranian-style theocracy or a sclerotic police state, is being thwarted."

Really? The Egyptian parliamentary election confirmed polling that indicates 60 percent of Egyptians favor complete adoption of Shariah law. Shariah law does not require that future elections be held. Those polls also show an overwhelming majority of Egyptians want a religious government, stoning as a form of punishment, and limits on women and Christians in office.

The New York Times' David Kirkpatrick is not fooled by false promises. In an April 23 story, Kirkpatrick wrote, "[Morsi] has argued for barring women and non-Muslims from Egypt's presidency on the basis of [Shariah] law. He has called for a council of Muslim scholars to advise Parliament. He has a track record of inflammatory statements about Israel, calling its citizens 'killers and vampires.'"

The Muslim Brotherhood knows how Westerners think. They are playing us for fools. If we believe what has happened in Egypt and the upheavals in the rest of the Mideast will lead to democracy, human rights, equal rights for women and religious minorities, freedom of speech and press, then we are fools.

These fanatics do not intend to stop with Israel. Their ultimate target is America, by elections and/or other means.